How to determine ball/patch size

[lexington1]

I know this was addressed before, but I'll be darned if I can find it with the search. Anyway, is there a formula to determine ball and patch size? I recently purchased a wall gun with a one inch bore size. I would preferably like to use patching around .20 thick. What size mold should I get? I will probably order a Tanner mold.

[bob in the woods]

If the bore is an actual 1 in measurement, what is the depth of the grooves ?  As an example, my Colerain barrel in .54 cal. has round bottom grooves with a depth of .016.    I normally start off shooting any new rifle with a ball size 5 thou less than the bore so a .535 in a .54  ;  a .495 in a .50 etc.     That usually allows me to use a patch between .018 and .022 or so depending on the groove type and depth.   

[rich pierce]

With a new barrel I unbreech it. Then I take whatever ball I have, various patching, and short start and ram the patched ball down and out the breech. Examine the ball and patch. I want to see fabric weave marks all around the ball.

[Leatherbark]

I often take a 3 inch strip of ticking. I lube it and short start a ball and grab the ticking and yank the ball back out.  Often it reveals the patch weaving and land marks on the ball.  The ball sort of looks hexagonal.

[bob in the woods]

Good advice, but he doesn't have a ball yet. 

[lexington1]

With a new barrel I unbreech it. Then I take whatever ball I have, various patching, and short start and ram the patched ball down and out the breech. Examine the ball and patch. I want to see fabric weave marks all around the ball.

That's what I do to, so I've never really had to think about it too much. In this case I don't have a ball, and outside of my 3 inch Parrott, I've never had a muzzleloader this size.

[lexington1]

If the bore is an actual 1 in measurement, what is the depth of the grooves ?  As an example, my Colerain barrel in .54 cal. has round bottom grooves with a depth of .016.    I normally start off shooting any new rifle with a ball size 5 thou less than the bore so a .535 in a .54  ;  a .495 in a .50 etc.     That usually allows me to use a patch between .018 and .022 or so depending on the groove type and depth.

 

This is a smoothbore. The bore is exactly one inch.

[RichG]

I shoot a .650 ball out of my .670 officers fusil with a .018-.020 patch. 1"- .040 would be .960. That would be a loose fit so maybe .970-.980 and adjust patch thickness accordingly.

[Mike_StL]

Let's talk a little about your l gun.  My unit has a 1"wl gun a d we ha e fired it .re than a time or two.

First off, while it was called a long range musket, there is no rear sight.   There's no need to load it like a rifle. It should  e loaded like the piece of artillary that it is.   So you should be thinking of a loose fitting paper cartridge.   We use a 0.9i0" ball.  The powder charge is large.  160 grains to 240 grains with suffice. as we  aren't going to be  discouraging opposing cannon crews.

The paper wrapping acts as a wad taking up the windage.  If the paper wrapped ball is dipped in an oil/tallow a d bee's wax lubricant so much the better. 

The wall gun is an artillary piece and loading procedures should follow the same loading procedure one word use firing a cannon.

[lexington1]

Thanks for the info Mike. This one was built by Jess Mellott from the Rifle Shoppe. It came with one ball that really close to one inch. I don't think that this one has ever been fired. It has sort of rear sight. It's actually more of a concaved spot than anything. I bought this from TOW, so this picture is one that they had on the site.


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